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Dick Wolf
Richard Anthony Wolf (born December 20, 1946, New York, New York) is an American writer and producer, who wrote 15 episodes, served as producer of the third season and co-executive producer of the fourth season of the series Miami Vice. Career Wolf began writing for the police drama Hill Street Blues in 1981 and received an Emmy nomination for an episode for which he was the solo writer. He joined Miami Vice as a line producer beginning with the third season when Michael Mann went to work on his other series, Crime Story. Wolf took the show in a different direction, gone were the pastel colors, the light storylines and side characters (Noogie Lamont, Elvis, etc.) in favor of shows based on then-current events (a.k.a. "Ripped From The Headlines") and darker colors. He also wrote several episodes in both the third and fourth seasons, though in season four he was co-executive producer with Mann. Before the series' fifth and final season, Wolf left Vice to begin work on his own crime drama, Law and Order, which would star Dennis Farina in later seasons. The series aired its' first season in September, 1990 (roughly 14 months after Vice left the air). Law and Order was based in New York City, and featured crimes (some "ripped from the headlines") being solved by the detectives of the NYPD, then prosecuted by the attorneys. The show's cast was fluid, changing fairly often -- the longest serving members were Jerry Orbach from 1992-2004 and S. Epatha Merkerson from 1993-2010. Using current events as story material, the series continued for 20 seasons, totally 456 episodes, finally being cancelled in 2010, at the time tying the western Gunsmoke ''for the longest-running continuous prime-time drama on television (Wolf's L&O spinoff, ''Law & Order: SVU, ''broke the record in 2019 with its' 21st season).. ''Law and Order won an Emmy in 1997, and also spawned seven companion series: *''Law and Order: Special Victims Unit'' (1999-present, featuring Richard Belzer), with an emphasis on sexual-based offenses. *''Law and Order: Criminal Intent'' (2001-2011, featuring Vincent D'Onofrio and Jay O. Sanders), dealing mainly with high-profile crimes. *''Law and Order: UK'' (2009-2014), transplanting the same style to a London setting. *''Law and Order: Trial By Jury'' (2005-06), focusing on trial procedures and lawyers. *''Law and Order: Los Angeles'' (2010-2011, featuring Alfred Molina), based in Los Angeles. *''Law and Order: True Crime'' (2017), focusing on particularly infamous crimes, such as the Menendez murders of 1996. *''Law and Order: Hate Crimes'' (in production), emphasis on hate crimes in NYC, will feature some detectives from SVU as a crossover. Of these, Law and Order: UK is notable as the first American drama series to be adapted for British television (a process that has been carried out in reverse numerous times, with varying critical results). Wolf also created the series Crime and Punishment, Conviction, and has begun creating Law & Order-type series based out of Chicago: Chicago Fire (2012-present), Chicago P.D. (2013-present), Chicago Med (2015-present, with Oliver Platt), Chicago Justice ''(2017, with Gary Basaraba), as well as a series based on the ''FBI (2018-present). His other series include the cable series Cold Justice, Cold Justice: Sex Crimes, 3am, and Night Watch. Personal Life Wolf was a classmate of former president George W. Bush. In 1970 he married Susan Scranton, then they divorced in 1983, later that year he married Christine Marburg (Melanie Griffith's character in the Vice episode "By Hooker by Crook" was named for her) from 1983 until their divorce in 2005, they have three children; Olivia, Elliott (the original lead characters of Law and Order: SVU were named for them) and Sarina (Elisabeth Rohm's character in the original Law & Order, Serena Southerlyn was named for her). Wolf is currently married to Noelle Lippmann, they have two children. Category:Producers Category:Writers